Mixed Results on the Currency Markets this Week

Welcome back to another currency report, which looks at the performance the British pound managed this week. What would the outcome be?

An overview of the currency markets for July 17th – July 21st, 2017

Would we start with good news against the US dollar? Well, the British pound opened trading on 1.2974 this week, and rose to 1.3059 on day one. A good start, and despite a loss on Tuesday, we remained above the 1.30 mark. We reached 1.3033 on Wednesday, before falling back to 1.2945 the following day. We did finally regain some lost ground to close on 1.2991 on Friday, so although we didn’t finish in 1.30 territory, we did manage to close higher than we had opened on.

Could we do something similar against the euro, we wondered? Things were looking good to start with, as we began trading on 1.1365 before rising to 1.1393 on day one. However, we then had a similar setback on day two, dropping to 1.1263 there. Although we improved to 1.1301 on Wednesday, this would turn out to be the best rate we could achieve all week. We ended up falling on the final two days, and that meant we finished on a much lower 1.1159 against the euro. That was disappointing, after some early promise.

We had a similar situation against the Hong Kong dollar, too. We started trading on 10.130 before rising to close out the first day on 10.192. We then dropped to 10.157 before rising once again the day after. This took us to 10.177 at the midweek point. But there was more to be done, because a fall to 10.110 occurred on Thursday, leaving us uncertain of how the week would end. In reality, it ended on a better note, as the pound rose to 10.144 – and yes, this was better than our opening effort had been, so things ended well here.

Our fourth stop takes us over to the New Zealand dollar, where the pound began the week on 1.7759. We opened in good style, rising to 1.7801 by Monday evening, so we were hoping for better news as the week went on. Little did we realise at that point that we were in store for some major disappointment. By the time the week was over, we had gone through four falls in our exchange rate with the Kiwi dollar. That meant the pound had fallen to 1.7464 by Friday night – and that was a major drop over the entire week.

So, would we experience much the same against the Australian dollar as well? It seemed likely, since the two currencies often behave in much the same way from the pound’s perspective. We started trading on 1.6719, but the first two days did not go our way. Instead, by Tuesday night, we had dipped to 1.6405. We did improve mildly the following day – to 1.6423 – but that was it, particularly as we ended up dipping to 1.6355 on Thursday. While we managed to do better to finish the week, ending on 1.6403, this was still a far cry from the opening rate we had experienced.

Notable events in the world of currency

Another fall seen against the Canadian dollar

The pound did not do well here, dropping from 1.6507 to a disappointing 1.6364 this week.

More of the same against the Swiss currency, too

The pound started trading on 1.2560 against the Swiss franc, before dropping back to 1.2332 by Friday night.

Better news – finally – against the Icelandic krona

It is heartening to realise the pound could do better in some quarters, at least. It managed to rise from 135.153 to 136.641 this week against the Icelandic currency.

Well, we did at least manage to find a few good results mixed in with the disappointments. However, there was not enough to celebrate this week, and the pound remains looking somewhat fragile. Even in areas where it did do well, we didn’t feel it was a result that could last. We’ll know more next week.